This is beautifully written and I feel the weight of it. But here's a thought I've been wrestling with...
What if prompting is the new coding? Not less than just different. When we moved from assembly to high-level languages, people probably said 'I used to really program. Now I just write English that gets translated.'
That said, I completely agree that something is lost. The satisfaction of debugging for 2 hours and finding that one off-by-one error? The 'aha' moment? AI shortcuts right past that.
Maybe the answer isn't to go back, but to find joy in what we build rather than how we build it. Just thinking out loud. Curious what you think.
Great analogy with assembly vs high-level languages — I think you're right.
And those "aha" moments don't disappear, they just move up a level. Instead of the thrill of catching a bug, it's the satisfaction of designing the right architecture, structuring a system that actually scales, or realizing why your whole approach needs to change. Different puzzle, same dopamine hit.
The focus shifts from how to make it work to what you're actually building — and honestly, that feels like progress to me.
Aha moments don't disappear they just move up a level.
That's the line. You're right that the thrill of catching a bug is real, but the satisfaction of designing architecture that actually scales? That's a different kind of reward. Maybe deeper.
I think the loss I was writing about is real, but so is the gain you're describing. The problem is that the gain is harder to see in the moment. The joy of "I made this thing work" is immediate and loud. The joy of I designed this system well takes months to reveal itself.
Different puzzle, same dopamine hit I hope you're right. Maybe I'm still learning where to look.
Thanks for this — genuinely helpful. 🙌
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This is beautifully written and I feel the weight of it. But here's a thought I've been wrestling with...
What if prompting is the new coding? Not less than just different. When we moved from assembly to high-level languages, people probably said 'I used to really program. Now I just write English that gets translated.'
That said, I completely agree that something is lost. The satisfaction of debugging for 2 hours and finding that one off-by-one error? The 'aha' moment? AI shortcuts right past that.
Maybe the answer isn't to go back, but to find joy in what we build rather than how we build it. Just thinking out loud. Curious what you think.
Great analogy with assembly vs high-level languages — I think you're right.
And those "aha" moments don't disappear, they just move up a level. Instead of the thrill of catching a bug, it's the satisfaction of designing the right architecture, structuring a system that actually scales, or realizing why your whole approach needs to change. Different puzzle, same dopamine hit.
The focus shifts from how to make it work to what you're actually building — and honestly, that feels like progress to me.
This is such a generous reframe thank you. 🙏
Aha moments don't disappear they just move up a level.
That's the line. You're right that the thrill of catching a bug is real, but the satisfaction of designing architecture that actually scales? That's a different kind of reward. Maybe deeper.
I think the loss I was writing about is real, but so is the gain you're describing. The problem is that the gain is harder to see in the moment. The joy of "I made this thing work" is immediate and loud. The joy of I designed this system well takes months to reveal itself.
Different puzzle, same dopamine hit I hope you're right. Maybe I'm still learning where to look.
Thanks for this — genuinely helpful. 🙌